INTRODUCTION:

Today’s healthy children are the tomorrow’s healthy citizen. The health of children is basically placed in the hand of their parents, as child flourish under the care of their mothers. According to Singh Meharban (1999) “the health and survival of child depends upon the health status of mother and awareness, education and skill in mother craft . Mother is the best primary health worker. In view of her constant and continued contact with her child, she is the best person to identify and early evidence illness and minor development deviation from normal¹.

Like other organs eyes play an important role in our lives. Eyes are the most vital gateway of enjoying the pleasures of the world. Like other organs eyes play an important role in our lives. Eyes are the most vital gateway of enjoying the pleasures of the world. Take care of eyes; eye will take care of you. Nothing conveys feeling and motions between individual more intensively than the instant expression of the eye. The role the vision plays in our life is difficult to define. It is the connection between the mind, body and rest of the world².

An exploratory study to assess the knowledge and practices of mothers related to eye care of their children (3-6) years in an urban area of Ludhiana Punjab.

Purpose:

The purpose of this study is to explore the knowledge and practices of mothers to eye care of their children (3-6) year and find out the deficit area and finally recommend the concerned health centre to follow up for improvement

OBJECTIVES:

1) To assess the mothers knowledge related to eye care of their children (3-6) years

2) To find out the co relationship between mothers knowledge and practices related to eye care of their children (3-6) years

3) To find out the relationship between mothers knowledge related to eye care of their children (3-6) years with selected variables as: age of mothers, religion, education of mothers, occupation of mothers, monthly family income, number of children, sex of child, dietary habits, mass media exposure

4) To find out the relationship of mothers practices related to eye care of their children (3-6) years with selected variables as :age of mothers, religion, education of mothers, occupation of mothers, monthly family income, number of children, sex of child, dietary habits, mass media exposure.

5) To identify eye problems, prevalent among the children.

METHODOLOGY:

Design: Exploratory research design

Setting: An urban area of Fieldganj Ludhiana

Population: Mothers of children (3-6) years

Sample: Total sample size 100 mothers of children (3-6) years Ludhiana, Punjab

Development of tool:

The tool (interview Schedule) was constructed to assess the knowledge and practices of mothers to eye care of their children (3-6) year. Since there was no standardized tool available, extensive review of literature i.e. books, journals, experts opinion and the investigator’s professional experience and interview with the mothers and relatives of children provided basis for the construction of interview schedule.

Description of Tool:

Interview schedule is the formal instrument used which specifies the wording of all questions to be asked from respondents. Interview schedule method is usually used for exploratory studies, where the investigator is interested in establishing rapport and obtaining the facts for the study, Interview schedule to accomplish the objectives of the study, the interview schedule was constructed in the following three sections:

Part I: for obtaining personal information

Part II: for assessing mothers knowledge related to eye care of their children (3-6 years)

Part III: for identifying mothers practices related to eye care of their children (3-6 years)

The final tool included items on 5 areas of eye care knowledge and practices

Area I:

Eye hygiene:

The items included were related to washing of eyes, wiping of eyes, application of kajal.

Area II :

Nutrition for eye:

The items were related to food eye sight, nutrients necessary for eye sight, source of vitamins A, and vitamins A supplementation program me etc.

Area III:

Eye safety:

The items included were related to safety during play, protection from dust and foreign body, safety measures during ellipses and prevention from injury.

Area IV:

Eyestrain:

The items were related to viewing of television, correct posture while reading, Adequate light and direction of light.

Area V:

Common eye problems: these items were related to common preventable eye problem like conjunctivitis, styexerophthalmia and squint of eye.

Part I:

This part consisted of items for obtaining personal information about the respondents i.e. age of mothers, religion, education of mothers, occupation of mothers, monthly family income, dietary habits, number of children, sex of child and exposure to mass media.

Part II:

Interview Schedule:

This section consisted of 32 questions and 40 answers. Each correct answer fetched one mark, except questions related to source of vitamin A and symptoms of conjunctivitis which consisted of more than one response. The tool includes questions on five areas of Eye care knowledge i.e.

Sub area No of Question:

Eye hygiene 3

Nutrition for Eye 5

Eye safety 9

Eye strain 4

Common eye problem 11

Part III (Interview schedule):

This section consisted of eye care practices. Practices are organized as safe and unsafe practices of mothers related to eye care of their children (3-6 year). There are 30 safe and 38 unsafe practices. he tool includes items on five areas of eye care practices i.e.

Sub area No of Question

Eye hygiene 3

Nutrition for Eye 3

Eye safety 9

Eye strain 3

Common eye problem 2

Criterion measure:

Criterion measure used in this study as follows:

1. Knowledge items:

There were total 32 questions to assess the knowledge of mothers related to eye care of their children (3-6 years) each correct answer is given one mark. The maximum knowledge score was 40

Knowledge score was categorized in to 5 levels:

Excellent score: > 75%

Good score: 60-75 %

Average score: 45-60%

Low score : 35-45%

Poor score : <34%

2. Practice items:

There are total 20 questions to assess the practices of mothers related to eye care of their children 3-6 years and practices are organized as safe and unsafe practices. There are 30 safe and 38 unsafe practices.

Content validity of the tool :

the content validity of the tool was determined by the expert opinion on the relevance of items. The statistically content validity of knowledge tool =.92 and practice tool =.98 Reliability of tool : reliability of tool was computed by spilt half technique and test –retest technique by using spearman – Brown Prophecy formula, and karl Pearson formula. The reliability of the knowledge tool r=.84 and for practice tool r=.98.so tool was highly reliable

Major Findings the analysis of data revealed the following finding s:

Demographic Findings:

· The Mothers in the age group of (26-30) years comprised the 50 per cent sample, age group of (21-25)years comprised 31% of the sample, 12% belonged to 31-35 years and 7% were in age group of above 35 years.

· Majority of mothers 59% belonged to Hindu religion.

· All 100% subject were house wives

· Maximum 35% subject were 10+2, matric

· Maximum 41% mothers were in the age group 2500-5000

· Maximum (50%) mothers had two children

· Maximum (50%) mothers had male child

· Majority of (53% ) mothers non Vegetarian whereas 47% were vegetarian

Findings related to level of knowledge score:

· Four per cent mothers had excellent knowledge score (>75%), 36% mothers had average knowledge Score (45-60).

· The mean knowledge score of mothers was higher (71.33%) in the area of eye hygiene and lower (22.77%) in the area of nutrition for eye.

· The majority of the mothers had good safe practices score (64.66) in the area of eye strain and average safe practices in the area of eye safety and eye hygiene.

Findings related relationship between mothers’ knowledge and practices regarding eye care of their children:

· There was moderate positive correlation (r=0.61) between knowledge and safe practices of mothers.

· There was a negative correlation (r=0.5) between knowledge and unsafe practice.

Findings related to mothers’ knowledge with selected variable:

· Mothers of 31-35 years of age group had highest mean (24.16) knowledge score as compared to others age group.

· Mothers who belonged to Sikh religion had highest mean (21.79) knowledge score than mothers belonging to other religions.

· Graduate mothers had higher mean (25) knowledge score as compared to other categories.

· Mothers mean knowledge score was (19.35) in house wives.

· The highest mean (22.70) knowledge score of mothers was in Rs5000 to 10000/- income group.

· The mean (20.12) knowledge score was highest among mothers who had two children and lowest (12.18) among mothers who had 3 children.

· The mothers who had male children had higher mean (19.57) knowledge score than the mothers with female children i.e mean(19.02 )

Findings related to mothers’ practices score with selected variables

§ The highest mean safe practices (15.33) was found among mother in the age group of 31-35 years and highest mean (14.32) unsafe practice was found among mothers in the age group 26-30 years.

§ The mean (14.38) safe practices was the highest among Sikh mothers whereas the lowest (10.14) among Muslim mothers.

§ The graduate mothers had highest mean (18) safe practices as also the lowest mean (9.4) unsafe practices.

§ Mothers who belonged to highest income group i.e. Rs. <10000had highest mean safe practice (19.66) and lowest mean unsafe practices (8.83)

§ Mothers of two children had highest mean safe practice (19.64) where as lowest mean safe practice was observed in mothers of > 3 children (8).

§ Mothers of male children have higher mean (13.57) safe practices and lower mean (13.27) safe practices and lower mean (13.27) unsafe practices than mother of female children i.e. (13.48) and (24.79) respectively.

§ Mother who were vegetarian had highest mean safe practices (13.93) and lower mean unsafe practices (13.10)

§ Mother who utilized all sources of mass media demonstrated more safe practices (19.09) and less unsafe practices (9.73)

Finding related to eye problems prevalent among children

At the time of study it was found that 7% children had blephritis, 4% conjunctivitis, 4% visual problems, 3% stye, 3% squint and had 3% eye injuries.

LIMITATION:

Limitation recognized in the study were,

· The size of the sample studied was only 100 mothers of children (3-6 years) hence it was difficult to make a broad generalization.

· Purposive sampling was done from the selected urban area in the Ludhiana which restricts the generalization of the study to the particular setting.

· Data collected were based on verbal response of the subject

· The interview schedule included only selected dimension of eye care.

RECOMMENDATION:

Based on the result of the study following recommendation are made

1) The study can be replicated on large sample to validate and generalize its findings

2) The study may be conducted at different community health levels

3) A comparative study can be conducted to assess the knowledge and practice of mothers related to eye care to their children in rural and urban community

4) The instrument used for assessing eye care knowledge and practices can further be developed and field tested for standardizing it.

REFERENCES:

1. Singh Meharban (1993) “ traditional health practices, for the care of children “ Swasth Hind (2), 50-51

2. Marlow R, Dorthy (200 "Text book of paediatric nursing" fourth edition, J. B Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, 525-51.

3. Trained nurses association of India (2005)” A community health Nursing Manual “third edition, L-17, green park. New Delhi.

4. Jacob Betty, KaurJasvir (2004) “A study to assess the knowledge and attitude of mother regarding neonatal care “Nursing Horizon 14:18-21 Jawaharlal Nehru “Swasth Hind 30(8): 196-199.

5. Kabra Arban (1982), solar eclipse (1982) – its ophthalmic effects “Indian journal of ophthalmic, 30(2): 294-301.

6. Mathew Celine (2003)” Mothers knowledge and remedial practices regarding their infants common health problems : CMC

7. Varghese J(1992) “A study of vitamin A related food behavior among socially disadvantages preschool children in urban slums “ SNDT, woman’s university Mumbai, India.

Received on 09.05.2017 Modified on 20.07.2017

Int. J. Nur. Edu. and Research. 2017; 5(4): 421-424.

DOI: 10.5958/2454-2660.2017.00090.4